The book rejects reductionist biology and takes influence from Michael Polanyi and vitalist philosophy.
"[2] Ecologist Arthur M. Shapiro in a review for the National Center for Science Education commented: David Holbrook, Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge, has written a polemic not so much against evolution as against scientific reductionism (which he sees incarnate in neo-Darwinism).
He proceeds from revulsion at the existentialist vision of "life as a 'scientific accident.'"
He's no creationist but, rather, a from-the-gut free-form vitalist—just as preoccupied with the perceived moral consequences of the Darwinian revolution as any Bible-thumping moralist could be.
As usual, he conflates science with scientism and evolution with evolutionism, materialism, and atheism.